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Apply metadata to records

The Records Governance Policy (external) has replaced Information Standard 31: Retention and disposal of public records, and Information Standard 40: Recordkeeping. These information standard have been repealed.

Any references to IS31 and IS40 may be taken as a reference to the current Records Governance Policy if the context permits.

Note: If you are supplying a copy of a record to a third party, consider removing any metadata containing personal or confidential information (e.g. author). Metadata should not be removed from the original source record.

3. Applying metadata at specific levels

Metadata can be applied to different levels within your recordkeeping system (e.g. document, transaction, file or series).

Consider at what level metadata is applied based on the record, the relationship between it and the relevant level, and your recordkeeping system.

Note: Inheritance of metadata can occur between levels, depending on systems and applications.

Some metadata elements are more relevant to some levels than others.

Metadata can be applied to a higher level (e.g. information about a series) if it applies to all records. Metadata specific to individual records (e.g. title of the record) will need to be applied at the record level.

4. When to apply additional metadata

Some records will require additional metadata to enable access, ongoing management and preservation.

Assess this based on:

retention period–more metadata is required for significant and archival value records, and records with long-term temporary or permanent retention periods (some of this may need to be explicitly documented)

age–older records may have a smaller ‘window of opportunity’ before access is lost or their authenticity is put at risk

current accessibility–additional metadata may be required for records known to be at risk of becoming inaccessible (e.g. rare formats, complex records, records in legacy systems, records in off-line storage or on at risk storage media)

redundancy–in some situations, similar information is duplicated in different records and different ICT systems (records that are more unique are at higher risk and will need more metadata)

Determine what metadata can be automatically captured and what needs to be manually added. You may be able to configure the type of metadata to be captured automatically.

If you are digitising, converting or migrating, consider capturing event history metadata at the time rather than after the project is finished.

Checks should be determined, documented, and implemented to assess the quality of metadata that are both manually entered and automatically generated.

6. Metadata for records that have been transferred

You need to update event history metadata for records transferred as part of a MOG or administration change. The record transfer or migration date must not overwrite the record creation date or last action date.

Minimum metadata about transferred records should include:

record identifier (e.g. file number)

title

record creation date and time

record closed date

transfer details–include name of receiving, transferring or creating agency and transfer date

status of or details about the associated function (e.g. ceased or transferred).

There may be additional details you need to keep depending on the situation. Use the minimum disposal metadata as a guide.

If your system can’t store this information, you may need to record it elsewhere.

QGCIO Metadata management principles

The Metadata management principles are a set of ambitions or values that accountable officers should aspire to when making decisions regarding the creation, management and use of metadata.

These principles provide for a consistent and contemporary approach to metadata for the Queensland Government and will assist agencies in the establishment and maintenance of metadata management practices.

PRONOM is a file format registry which includes information about the structure of file formats, and the software and hardware environments required to support them, minimising the amount of format and environment metadata an individual organisation may need to source and manage itself.

Linked to PRONOM, Digital Record Object IDentification (DROID) is a desktop client for automatic file format identification, developed in conjunction with the PRONOM online registry of technical information by the National Archives of the UK.

The Metadata Extraction Tool was developed by the National Library of New Zealand to programmatically extract preservation metadata from a range of file formats. It is designed to automatically extract preservation-related metadata from digital files and output that metadata in XML formats for use in preservation activities.